Shrek Forever After
Shrek Forever After, formerly known as Shrek Goes Fourth and also known as Shrek 4 or Shrek: The Final Chapter, is a 2010 animated film, It is the fourth and last installment in the Shrek Series. It was released in cinemas May 21 2010 in the US and was released on July 2 2010 in the UK. Tim Sullivan wrote the film, and Mike Mitchell directed. The principal cast members reprised their roles. The plot was announced February 23 2009. This movie is supposedly the final film in the Shrek series, just as Shrek the Third ''was claimed to be. Forever After follows ''Shrek, Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third. Like the first three Shrek films, the movie is significantly based on fairy tale themes. The film was revealed on 25 November 2009. The teaser trailer was attached to 20th Century Fox's Avatar. The second trailer was shown before ''Alice in Wonderland (only in the 3D versions) and ''How to Train your Dragon the third trailer was shown in front of Iron Man 2. Plot The film opens with the King and Queen (Fiona’s parents) going to see Rumpelstiltskin to find a way to free Fiona from the tower from the first movie. In exchange, they agree to sign over their kingdom to him. But before they sign the contract, they find out that an unknown person has already saved Fiona. Determined that signing the contract would be pointless, King Harold tore the contract. We are brought back to the present where Rumpelstiltskin is ripping apart a book in a bookstore telling this story, angry that he didn’t get the kingdom. Pinocchio kicks him out of the store after he tries to offer him a deal to make him a real boy. He angrily wishes Shrek was never born. We cut to Shrek with Fiona and their three children, living a happy and content life in the swamp. Or so it looks at first. But we soon see that it’s the same routine for Shrek day after day with no rest or time to himself. Shrek and the gang go back to Far Far Away to celebrate their kids’ first birthday. All the villagers who used to fear him are now clamoring fans and treat him like a celebrity. After the three little pigs eat the birthday cake (as well as a backup cake and a set of cupcakes) and an annoying kid named Butter Pants bothers him about doing the ogre roar, he unleashes a mighty roar and smashes the new cake, as the cake has a glittery "cute" ogre on it, which simply serves to remind Shrek of what he has lost. Shrek and Fiona go outside to talk. Shrek is angry that he is no longer a real ogre. He wishes his life were how it was before he rescued Fiona. Fiona is hurt and tells him he has everything but Shrek is the only one that can’t see that. Eavesdropping on this conversation nearby is Rumpelstiltskin. On his long trek back home, Shrek passes by a fallen over carriage and lifts it to find Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek fixes his carriage and in exchange, Rumpelstiltskin offers Shrek a ride and some drinks. During the ride, Shrek tells him he wishes he could be a real ogre for just one day. Rumpelstiltskin offers him a contract offering him just that. In exchange, Shrek is going have to give up a day: they agree it will be a day from his childhood, a day he wouldn't even remember. Shrek signs the contract and everything around him swirls around and disappears landing him in the middle of the forest. A tour group drives by and they react in fear and crash into a tree. The villagers are afraid of him again as shown in a montage of Shrek happily scaring villagers and animals. As Shrek walks through the forest, he notices that the wanted posters are not just pictures of him but pictures of Fiona as well. He runs back to his home in the swamp to find it has never been excavated from the hill it was into the house it should be. A band of witches fly by the area and see him. They attack, knocking him unconscious and capturing him. He wakes up in a trolley cage being driven by witches and dragged by Donkey. Shrek tries to ask him what is going on but Donkey doesn’t know who Shrek is. Shrek eventually gets the information out of Donkey that he is being taken where every other ogre is taken, to Rumpelstiltskin. Far, Far Away has become rundown and decrepit except for Rumpelstiltskin’s enormous castle. Inside the castle, it’s like a dance club as Shrek in chains is marched across the dance floor to the throne of Rumpelstiltskin. Pinocchio begs him to be a real boy but he gets dragged away before he can finish signing the contract, thanks to Shrek, the far more important person to deal with at that time, being dragged in. Rumpelstiltskin sees Shrek and thanks him for making everything around him come true. He reveals that the contract that the King and Queen signed ended up taking away their existence when they signed away the Kingdom to Rumpelstiltskin, as they had wished for their worries to disappear. He reveals to Shrek that the childhood day that he took away was the day Shrek was born, and as such, when the day comes to an end, Shrek will disappear forever as in this new reality he has never actually existed; ultimately, his three children don’t exist by extension. Shrek, in anger, breaks free and steals one of the witch’s broomsticks and escapes with Donkey, against his will. Shrek and Donkey crash land in the woods somewhere. Donkey, fearful of ogres just as any other citizen would be, attempts to flee, but Shrek stops him from successfully running away. Shrek tries to convince Donkey to trust him by poorly singing a showtune and smiling, but the attempt fails. Donkey runs away screaming. Shrek sits alone on a log, and a squeak emanates from his pocket. Pulling the item out he discovers that he had brought his daughter's little ogre doll and starts crying. Donkey sees this. Having never seen an ogre cry before, he chooses to trust him. Shrek tells him that he signed a contract with Rumpelstiltskin, which Donkey says he should never have done. Donkey then tells him about the exit clause which used to be guessing Rumpelstiltskin’s name but they don’t do that anymore since everyone knows his name now. Donkey shows Shrek the hidden exit clause in the contract by folding the contract in a certain way - at least in this case, as an origami heart. The way to break the contract is to share true love’s kiss: Shrek has to share a kiss with Fiona but doesn’t know where she is so he rushes to the fortress where he rescued her in the first movie. When he gets to the top of the tower, he finds it empty and on the wall a tally of the innumerable days she spent up in that tower. He is also surprised to see that she left her crown behind on her bed. Shrek also finds a handkerchief that belonged to Fiona, which was originally a token of her love to him. He gives it to Donkey so he can sniff her out. Despite trying to explain to Shrek that he is in fact a donkey and not a dog (as otherwise his name would be "Dog" and not "Donkey"), he smells something but his nose just leads him to a plate of waffles. Shrek tries to stop him, telling him how obvious of a trap it is, but Donkey tastes it anyways. Licking the syrup caused the trap to trigger as a log forces Donkey into a hole under the stump. Shrek follows Donkey through it underground, where he finds an entire community of ogres who make up the resistance to free Far Far Away and ogres everywhere. The warrior leader of this group turns out to be Fi ona. As one might expect (except for Shrek himself) she doesn’t recognise him. He tries to explain the situation to her but he does it poorly. Before he can continue, witches patrol by their little village. Rumpelstiltskin has a meeting with the witches. He threatens them with a goblet of water in order to get Shrek before he kisses Fiona. They decide to hire a professional bounty hunter. Fiona tells her meeting of ogres that Rumpelstiltskin will lead the Ogre Hunt himself. They plan to ambush him now that he’s out of the safety of his castle, something he has not done before. Shrek plans to get Fiona to fall in love with him all over again so she will kiss him. When Shrek goes to Fiona’s room, he finds a morbidly obese Puss n’ Boots, who has retired and since gone soft, becoming, in effect, Fiona's pet. Fiona finds Shrek in her room. Shrek gives her a gift basket in order to woo her. It doesn’t work and she kicks him out. The bounty hunter Rumpelstiltskin has hired is the Pied Piper. Using his flute, he is able to manipulate any person or creature he sets his flute to, demonstrating by setting the flute to witches and making the witches break dance against their will. Shrek finds out from the other ogres at dinner that the usual romantic gestures won’t work with Fiona and that the only thing she really cares about is getting rid of Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek tries to get closer to Fiona by feigning interest in the armory weapons. They end up sparring and having a good time with each other. Before he can get too close, she snaps out of it and orders him to get ready for the mission. Puss catches up to Shrek telling him that he saw a spark in Fiona that means Shrek is truly Fiona’s true love. Shrek tells Puss that he knows about Fiona’s curse. At the ambush, the ogre band disguise themselves to wait for Rumpelstiltskin's caravan to pass by while Fiona moves to and lookout post to provide the group with the signal they will use to attack. However, Shrek ignores the plan and instead follows Fiona up to her lookout, where he proceeds to tell Fiona everything he knows about her including the curse. With Fiona distracted, the signal never comes to the rest of the ogre band, and Brogan grows impatient, and takes it upon himself to issue the order. The ogre band rush out to take down the carriage only to find it empty. It turns out that the caravan is a trap laid by the Pied Piper, who proceeds to force the ogres into a dance number (of which only Cookie enjoys). Meanwhile, Shrek and Fiona start dancing randomly, unknowing of what has occurred. Donkey and Puss ride down the hill and grab Shrek and Fiona (they are unaffected by the Piper's magical flute because it must be attuned to a specific type of being to function against them, and it is currently on an ogre setting which only affects ogres). They try to ride them away from the music but end up falling into the river. On dry land, Fiona tries to go back to her friends but Shrek insists that she kiss him in order to save her friends. She kisses him but it doesn’t work. Nothing happens. Fiona tells him it’s all a big fairy tale and that she got herself out of the tower. She leaves. Shrek realises that the kiss doesn’t work because Fiona is not in love with him in this reality. She was never rescued like she was supposed to be, and became disheartened and stopped believing in love. Rumpelstiltskin takes to the airwaves across all of Far, Far Away and tells the populace that he will give them their wildest dreams in exchange for Shrek and Fiona. Shrek finally realises that he didn’t realise how perfect he had it until it was all gone. Gingerbread Man tries to collect his bounty from him and tells him about the deal. This gives Shrek an idea, but before he can ask Gingerbread Man an important question, Puss eats him. Shrek turns himself in, in order to get the deal of a lifetime, which Rumpelstiltskin offered to whosoever turned Shrek in. He makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to free all the ogres. He keeps Fiona, however, because she’s not all ogre, due to her curse. Rumpelstiltskin keeps them chained in the same room but across the room, relishing his victory. They are incapable of reaching each other because they are chained through the walls to one another, so if one person pulls forward, the other person is dragged back. Donkey, Puss, and the ogres make a plan on how to free Shrek and Fiona. Meanwhile, in the large room that Shrek and Fiona are chained up, Rumpelstiltskin unleashes Dragon. Donkey, Puss, and the ogres break in and cause chaos as they try to save Shrek and Fiona. Donkey and Dragon fall in love all over again (likely because Shrek had already revealed to Donkey that she was his wife) but instead of kissing him, the dragon attempts to eat him; however, Puss saves Donkey by stabbing Dragon with his rapier. Shrek and Fiona work together to chain up and defeat Dragon. The ogres corner Rumpelstiltskin but he tries to escape on his goose. Shrek lassos the goose and brings him down to the ground. The ogres have won the battle. However, the battle is one at daybreak and as such, Shrek begins to disappear from existence. Shrek tells Fiona all about their life together and their kids as he’s disappearing. He tells her how he’s enjoyed falling in love with her all over again. She kisses Shrek just as he disappears, As the sun rises, Shrek begins to fade from existence, but Fiona, having fallen in love with him all over again, kisses him just before he disappears completely, which nullifies the contract and restores Shrek to his world just before he originally lashed out at everyone. Shrek embraces his friends and family with newfound appreciation for everything he has, truly living happily forever after.